Inc. Magazine and Freedom Inc. on vacation

How to Set a Workplace Vacation Policy

by Lauren Folino

1 MARCH 2010

If you are contemplating the terms of a workplace vacation policy, a critical step is to determine whether or not it benefits your business to have one at all. Some workplaces have decided to scrap their policies altogether, and allow employees to take off as much time as they want. The theory behind this option is that it de-bureaucratizes the workplace, and, rather than making employees feel like they will be compensated for productivity, they will maintain increased productivity by not having to stress out about proving their self-worth within the company.

This concept of workplace democracy, and doing away with employer-sanctioned occupational limitations, has become one of the most important movements in the business world, says Brian Carney, London-based member of the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, editorial page director of the Wall Street Journal Europe, and co-author of the business book, Freedom, Inc.: Free Your Employees and Let Them Lead Your Business to Higher Productivity, Profits, and Growth. “One of the things that we discovered [in doing research for this book] is that to really liberate employees, you have to get them out of the mindset of trading material goods in one form or another for performance,” he says.